Month July 2015

Marketing

SME Blog

Attracting customers is one of the top challenges for startup businesses, especially if you do not have any marketing background yourself. However, the principles of marketing are common sense and can get you a long way without excessive expenditure. 1. Know Yourself Time spent on working out what makes your product or service special (its…

Business News

Tomorrow, Friday 31 July 2015 is the closing date for the Shell LiveWIRE Smarter Future Programme Award. By 2050, our planet could be home to more than 9 billion people with 75% living in cities. Ensuring sufficient supply of resources will pose considerable challenges and at the same time present opportunities for the next generation…

Business News

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last week show that British online sales increased by 11.4 % in June 2015, compared to the same time last year. The value of sales made online in June 2015 increased by 1.4 % compared with May 2015 and accounted for 12.4 % of all retail sales.…

Business Travel

SME Blog

Longhaul flights can be challenging but are often unavoidable in business. With a bit of planning it is possible to ease the pain and even enjoy the ride. The important thing to remember is that every person is different – knowing yourself helps you look after your needs. Your attitude determines how you feel, too,…

Business News

Winweb’s cloud-based business management solutions have a new focus on industry-specific requirements, with special applications for retail, wholesale, services, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, non-profit organizations, membership businesses, and franchises. WinWeb industry solutions offer basic business functions, such as accounting, invoicing and business planning as well as industry-specific functionality, for example multi-location and multi-channel sales for…

Work Life Balance

SME Blog

Can’t switch off after work? Restless? Anxious? Thoughts endlessly going round your mind? Heart racing? Grumpy with your family for no particular reason? Maybe it is time to relax! 1. Make time Relaxation may seem like indulgence, almost a taboo in our fast-paced 24/7 society, when in reality it should be part of a healthy…

Business News

The Federation of Small Businesses has announced talks to assess the growth potential in the North of England. The FSB is calling for greater efforts to rebalance the economy to ensure the vision of a prosperous Northern Powerhouse becomes a reality. A series of policy events are being organised by the FSB to find out…

Top 5 Tips

As pointed out in an earlier post, it is worth thinking twice before scheduling a meeting and preferable to first consider whether the meeting is really necessary. When you do arrange a meeting, make sure it is as productive as possible. 1. Be clear about what you want to achieve. This could be one of…

Integrated cloud-based IT systems can help solve one of the biggest problems for small businesses: How to find the right information technology experts. Recruiting the right IT staff seems to be problematic for almost half of all SMEs across the UK, according to a recent report published by IT hosting company Node4. This problem might…

Top 5 Tips

For many people the fear of speaking in public is second only to the fear of dying. Don’t let this put you off: Giving presentations, speeches and talks is an effective and valuable undertaking to promote your business and generate leads. It raises your professional profile, too, and can help you become an expert in…